Chapter 102 Unforgettable
Storing away the red gemstone necklaces, they left the beast corpses behind.
At first, they wanted to take the corpses with them because the wolves' corpses were likely to be worth a little bit.
But after thinking about it, it was likely for them to encounter a few dozen groups of monsters on their way to find the hidden basement of the Teradan military camp.
As such, they left the corpses behind, thinking that it was not that much of a loss.
Later, they would take more valuable corpses with them, but not for now.
In their current state, the small group of three just wanted to approach the ocean.
At least that was what Bella proposed to do, which Nial and Mathias willingly agreed to after thinking about it for a few seconds.
The three of them believed that their first task would be assessed.
However, that didn't mean they could relax and savor the sight, or feel the ocean breeze for a moment.
It might delay their time of arrival at the camp, but Bella was sure that they had earned their moment of rest. She knew that the accumulated tension would ease up, and calm their senses, by a lot.
Thus, they made their way down the hill, advancing towards the direction of the beach.
According to Bella and Mathias, the time now was around midnight, which astonished Nial a lot.
He had only subtly noticed that the air was growing cold, and the most likely reason for this was the advent of night.
However, without being able to access the network system of the government on the island, Nial couldn't even use the Originals bracelet properly.
He was not able to see the time, or figure it out, except through the other senses that helped him gauge the flow of the wind, the surrounding temperature, and a few more factors.
It might not be perfectly accurate but was still better than nothing.
Despite that, having someone, who was able to see, right by his side, allowed him to be certain of the time of the day.
Nonetheless, Nial was still shocked when he got to know that it was already midnight, while Bella was utterly calm.
"It's obvious for the two of you to be shocked about this, but what you guys might not have noticed yet is the fact that the few shelters of mankind are located extremely far away from each other."
She stated the fact rather nonchalantly, but her words caused both Mathias and Nial to avert their attention to Bella.
Bella noticed this and started to explain further without halting in her tracks for even a second.
"If I remember correctly, mankind had around 50 large shelters a century ago. Before that, there were far more of them.
However, now, only the well-hidden, and the best protected shelters that make use of their particular environment are left behind.
They survived the attack of monstrous existences, whose numbers slowly dwindled owing to the large distance between all the remaining shelters.
Traveling from one place to another takes a few months, and every single day, a minute, or even a second, one could be attacked, overwhelmed, and killed by the surrounding beasts!
In fact, Katu is one of the most peaceful shelters as we are located in a small, well-hidden valley, at the most secured position at that!"
Nial had never heard about all this information, and after sensing Mathias' reaction, he figured out that his friend was equally confused.
From what he remembered nobody knew whether the dungeons had been in existence a century ago or not.
Yet, given the information that 50 shelters had existed during that time, including that there were more beforehand, Nial couldn't help but be confused.
'If what Bella said is correct, the dungeons appeared more than a century ago. But then, doesn't that mean the provided pieces of information I read were wrong?'
Mathias was probably feeling the same as Nial and both had identical expressions of doubt on their faces.
Given the additional information, Nial also figured out that Bella must have lived in a different shelter beforehand.
As such, she must have moved with her mother.
This confused him even more as he had not expected it.
'With the talent and innate traits of hers, why would she move to Katu? Our shelter is said to be one of the weakest in existence?'
While trying to untangle the jumbled mix of thoughts, Nial felt an incoming headache that began to pound his head only a bunch of minutes later.
He felt that everything was much more complex than it seemed.
"Did you procure this information from a different shelter? And it shouldn't be too difficult to move around the shelters as long as you can move through the teleportation circles, right? So the distance between shelters shouldn't really matter if we were, to be honest…"
Unable to hold back from prying into her privacy, Nial felt like he had to ask all of these questions to clear his doubts.
It was not that he wanted to act rude or nosy, but his curiosity and confusion overwhelmed his rational senses.
As such, he simply blurted out all the questions he had in mind, without holding back too much.
"Creating teleportation circles is not as easy as you might think. I'm already astonished that Katu possesses one, but I think I can gauge the reason behind this.
In the end, Katu and presumably also the other shelters have only one-way teleportation circles without an exact location to land on.
The teleportation circle in Katu is probably only configured to fit a certain range of coordinates, nothing more than that.
However, the teleportation circles I have heard about have a restricted limit of distance to allow teleportation.
As such, all nine shelters of mankind have to be within reach of the island we are currently situated on, otherwise, I'm not sure if my information is even correct, to begin with.
As to how I know this information…yes, I procured it from a different shelter.
That was because my mother ad-...I mean, when my mother and I lived in a different shelter I learned a lot.
It was only later that we decided to move to Katu due to the numerous dangers everyone is facing in the other shelters.
There are more and stronger Originals in other shelters than in Katu, but this little shelter here is like a paradise for the unawakened!"
Bella's long speech explained a lot about the reason for her vast knowledge and even more about certain things revolving around the existence of the nine shelters.
Yet, Nial couldn't help but feel that Bella left out quite a few important pieces of information and he had not missed the way she had corrected herself midway.
Whether this was because she didn't want to expose that she knew far more, or that it would make her identity seem suspicious, Nial didn't know.
But what he was sure of was that Bella's slip of the tongue had something to do with all of this.
And even though Nial was unable to know the truth, he had a theory in his mind that caused his expression to soften.
When he had tried to digest the intel Bella provided them, Nial thought that she was acting suspiciously as if she knew literally everything about mankind's history and the true motives behind why certain things were done by the government.
After giving it some time, Nial's suspicion subsided as he realized that he might have been too far-fetched in his assumptions, causing him to change his way of thinking to some extent.
'So we don't even have a way back to our shelter? Or does the base of the Teradan military camp have a total of nine teleportation circles that can transport us around the borders of Katu and the other shelters, once we want to return?'
A few theories manifested in his mind and Nial felt that he was slowly grasping a rough understanding about the military and government's way of handling the military camps. But then again, he couldn't be certain whether or not his theories were correct or not.
Shaking his head at this assumption, Nial's mind added a few more doubts to his confusion.
'I should forget about Katu, but what about Liondra? There will be a teleportation circle to Liondra, right?'
He momentarily forgot about Bella's slip of the tongue, while Mathias' thoughts had wandered to formulate strange theories.
'50 Shelters only 100 years ago…now there are 9 left…and the hidden shelters, I guess… Does that mean mankind's situation is bad?..: Or are we able to retaliate against the forces of monstrous beasts?'
Mathias didn't really think much about the fact that Bella exposed information that an ordinary citizen of Katu was not supposed to know.
No citizen would be able to feel safe knowing that it was only a matter of time for mankind to go extinct, after all.
Yet, at the same time, it was important to understand mankind's stance against the dungeon beast's danger and ferocity!
Rather than focusing on that, the fact that only the most secured and best protected shelters were left behind worried him a lot.
To his misfortune, he lacked information, and couldn't even remotely tell whether they were fighting a losing battle, or if there was a chance for mankind's survival.
'Even the situation in Katu had become more dangerous in the last few weeks…'
Recalling the fact that more dungeons manifested in Katu during the prior few weeks, Mathias could only bite his lower lip, while clenching his hand hard enough for the white of his knuckles to be visible.
'I…no…WE have to become much stronger..as quickly as possible!!'
While numerous thoughts flashed through the mind of the three young Originals, caused by Bella's words that made even her think a lot about different things, they had reached the outskirts of the forest near the beach.
The salty smell of the ocean's air permeated their skin and nostrils as a faint breeze whirled around them.
This was enough to drag them out of their train of thoughts as the beach and the seemingly endless ocean came into their view.
Illuminated by the moonlight, everything was clearly visible to Bella and Mathias, who were momentarily stunned.
The moonlight shone on the darkish-blue water, making it seem as if the entire ocean was draped in a faint milky hue and stars that erupted when the waves crashed upon each other.
Due to this, it was difficult for the two to clearly tell where the ocean ended and where the sky began as the horizon seemed to merge them both.
Not a single cloud dotted the beautiful night sky, and the bright shining stars of twinkling high above were unveiled to them.
However, the two young Originals could only momentarily be exhilarated, forgetting about all their worries and hardships as a wave of guilt suddenly washed over them.
Subconsciously their heads moved towards Nial, which allowed Bella, who was on the right side of Nial, to see that Mathias had the exact same feeling.
This caused her to smile drily, only for Mathias to return it before both averted their attention back to Nial, whose lifeless eyes were staring straight at the endless horizon.
A bright smile had emerged on his face, and if the two young Originals didn't know that Nial was blind they would think that he was able to see everything they could witness just at this moment.
Yet, for Nial, everything he sensed was more than enough for him to be exhilarated.
After all, the ocean was something memorable, and while standing next to his new friends, the first true friends he made after getting to know Melvin, Nial knew that this exact moment was something he would never forget…in his entire life.
And that would be the case, even if he were to live for Eons!